[SMULA] Professional Certificate in Legal Practice of the Future Module 2: The Business of Law and Digitalising and Streamlining Legal Operations (PCLPF)

Implementing new operation procedures often come with challenges and unexpected bottlenecks. Smart solutions, however, can make operations smoother and automated, saving time and improving efficiency in these processes for both lawyers and clients. 

This module provides useful frameworks and metrics to evaluate the performance of one's practice, as well as highlights the optimisation of a financial setup. 

This module is part of the Professional Certificate in Legal Practice of the Future. It is also available on a standalone basis.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the 1-day module, participants will be able to:

• Reframe their firm’s business model as contrasted with a legal department
  
   
• Justify and plan for a budget from management in order to stretch the dollar and “do more with less"
  
   
• Appreciate legal operations in a digital, data-driven world and be equipped with frameworks for analysing and improving operations
  
   

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Associates with at least 1-2 years of experience
  
   
• Paralegals and Operations Managers in the legal services industry

PREREQUISITE

Participants should have at least 1-2 years of experience in a legal services firm



ASSESSMENT
As part of the requirement for SkillsFuture Singapore, there will be an assessment conducted at the end of every module. The mode of assessment, which is up to the trainer’s discretion, may be an online quiz, a presentation or based on classroom exercises.

Participants are required to attain a minimum of 75% attendance and pass the associated assessment in order to receive a digital Certificate of Completion issued by Singapore Management University.

SPEAKERS

Lee Kee Choon
Kee Choon is a seasoned finance professional with more than two decades of senior financial leadership experience, mostly within the professional services sector. Beginning as an auditor at Arthur Andersen in 1997, he transitioned to Hewitt Associates, where he held progressive corporate controllership roles for eight years, spearheading global business transformations and M&A ventures. As CFO of Baker & McKenzie (Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia), he navigated the firm through the post-Financial Crisis resurgence, igniting his passion for legal practice management. Subsequently, he served as Group CFO for a luxury hospitality design firm before co-founding Otter Esquire in 2018. This boutique firm, led by Kee Choon and former Baker & McKenzie colleagues, offers specialised business advisory and practice management support to law firms and professional services entities. Presently, he oversees operations and finances for nearly twenty law firms in an outsourced COO/ CFO capacity.

Rodney Yap
Rodney, Co-Founder and Director of Regall and UserTip, represented Singapore in the 2018 Global Legal Hackathon finals. As Regall’s director, Rodney has managed various LegalTech development projects and consulting projects with solution providers, law firms, and government affiliated agencies. As UserTip’s director, Rodney oversees the development and implementation of technology designed to smoothen out the process of digital adoption. Rodney was called to the Singapore Bar, and understands the requirements for certain areas of laws and how the legal operations of the firm needs to cater for certain situations. He is currently a adjunct faculty at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law, teaching Legal Design and Design Thinking. Rodney is also a member the global Legal Design Alliance.